1) Lakers 1 seed? Lol. What is this 2009? They have no PG. They have the worst bench in the NBA. They are SEVEN games behind the Thunder. SEVEN! If the Thunder go 16-16 over the second half (which won't happen unless Durant and Westbrook get hurt) Lakers will have to go 24-10 to pass them. The Lakers have somehow not lost a single game to injury or more importantly rest with their big three of Kobe, Gasol, and Bynum. You honestly think they are going to go on that sort of run and have the Thunder, Spurs, and Clippers collapse over the last half while having no injuries at all? Ya, not going to happen. The Lakers will be lucky to get above the 6 seed in the West. It is completely baffling that that team is 5th right now. They are 2 games away from not being a playoff team at all so to say they will wind up first is at best homerism and at worst stupidity.

---------- Post added 2012-02-26 at 08:10 PM ----------

Originally Posted by mirodin

I know that everyone loves OKC but think about it, they needed a once in a lifetime night (50+40+triple double (with blocks)) to beat an injured Denver Nugets team in OT. Miami is miles ahead of Denver, and Durant and Wes will be lucky if they get 60 against the Heat.

@fixit Get Dwight and giving up Gasol and Buynum won't make them win it all, maybe the first round.

That was one night and Denver is a damn good team. As for Dwight, ya he alone isn't going to fix the Lakers. That doesn't address their complete lack of a PG and complete lack of a bench. The Lakers will get slaughtered by anyone in the West except maybe Houston right now.

The All-star game is okay as it is, i know people want to see intense D, but no coach or owner will like if his star player gets injured in an exibition game. I for one am sick of the Slam dunk "contest". The last good one was back in 2000 and these recent ones are about who sets a better stage, maybe that has to do with Kenny organising it.

The All-star game is okay as it is, i know people want to see intense D, but no coach or owner will like if his star player gets injured in an exibition game. I for one am sick of the Slam dunk "contest". The last good one was back in 2000 and these recent ones are about who sets a better stage, maybe that has to do with Kenny organising it.

Theres 0 chance the Lakers make the championship game let alone win it. They have practically 0 depth and the worst PG/SF situation in the entire NBA.

There are 5 Teams that can win this year: Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs. Everybody else just isnt good enough.

Miami will no doubt be everybody's favorite yet its hardly a lock. The Bulls are no joke and have added more scoring with a presumably healthy Richard Hamilton once the playoffs roll around. Deng is one of the best on ball defenders for players like Lebron James and Lebron still cant entirely be trusted in big time situations, meaning Wade will have to do the dirty work. If Carlos Boozer can manage to equal the production of Chris Bosh (and that can be a big if) then the Bulls I think will beat Miami. Due to their superior depth and waves of defenders besides Boozer who cant guard my grandma.

As for the West I would make the favorites the 2 Texas teams and not the Thunder. I dont really buy into a team that gets all of their scoring from just 3 players. Everybody else on that team is so offensively challenged that all it takes is a bad game from Durant and they cant win. While Dallas is extremely reliant on their superstar, he is much more playoff proven and has shown time and time again that as long as he is the on the floor they will be a force to be reckoned with. Dallas also can get spot scoring from many other positions, so if Terry isnt on his game Carter can step up, or Marion, or Kidd etc. They have more options for when Dirk is drawing double teams than the Thunder do as well as a superior defense. San Antonio is just solid in all aspects and not amazing at anything. They know what it takes to win and have the best coach in the entire NBA. I dont think they will win the championship this year but it wouldnt suprise me one bit if they did.

If I had to make a prediction Id say Mavericks vs Bulls. Im not very confident about that pick though. I am confident though the Lakers will be nowhere near that game however. And Dwight Howard wont be wearing the Purple and Gold.

EDIT: Forgot to mention Clippers. Blake isnt anywhere near ready to carry a team when its needed, I dont trust any of their players to make big buckets in big moments especially with Billups out for the season. Paul has been overrated for years (Billups too tbh). And their coach is one of the worst coaches in the entire league.

@Jibjabb my only problem with Dallas is age and with this second half of this compressed season it might gas them before the playoffs I could argue the same with the Spurs but Pop is good about resting players and watching minutes esp on Duncan. I would say Spurs/Bulls or Thunder/Heat the NBA want's the latter for ratings I beat thou but the Spurs and Bulls would be a more sound game but would bore people except me.

EDIT: Forgot to mention Clippers. Blake isnt anywhere near ready to carry a team when its needed, I dont trust any of their players to make big buckets in big moments especially with Billups out for the season. Paul has been overrated for years (Billups too tbh). And their coach is one of the worst coaches in the entire league.

I don't trust the Clippers at this point for the exact same reasons. Vinny is a terrible, terrible coach. Replacing him in Chicago instantly netted them several wins just by having a better decision maker. He is a horrible crunch time coach. The Clip have no late game option right now except CP3. You can't get the ball to Griffin or Jordan because teams will just instantly hack them. Neither of those guys can hit free throws consistently so they run into a huge issue. That comes down to bad coaching as well. There is no excuse for the free throw shooting from Griffin and Jordan to be that bad. VDR needs to be in there faces getting them to work on that constantly. He also needs to get on Blake's ass about looking for a foul call every time he is touched. Staring down or jawing at refs isn't going to get them on your side and they will be more likely to swallow their whistle on minors fouls.

The NBA has shrunk the dunk contest down because it takes too much time with more than a handful of players. Gee NBA, how about you fix that issue by eliminating the fluff rather than neutering the dunk contest.

Firstly, get rid of the Shooting Stars competition or whatever it is where three players shoot for their city. It is stupid. You know what that event shows? WNBA players are better at hitting half court shots than they are hitting a 15 foot baseline jumper. Seriously. The WNBA players shot around 30% from the baseline jumper spot in the competition yet they made two half court shots. Lol bad. Not a single NBA fan wants to see the WNBA players participate. It is nice to see the former "stars" out there to shoot, but it isn't a selling point at all.

Secondly, no props. Remember when the dunk contest was just guys throwing down insane dunks? Vince Carter has some ridiculous dunks (watch that video for the best 360 dunk ever) and never used a single damn prop unless you count jumping over a 7 foot European in the Olympics as a prop. The props take too long to set up and are almost always terrible. The Paul George glow in the dark dunk took a good 5 minutes to set up and was meh. It takes too much time and the payoff is always awful.

Thirdly, get rid of the intros. Do we really need Kenny Smith talking to each guy setting up there dunk for a couple minutes beforehand? No. Get rid of that stupidity and let the guys dunk.

If you cut down on the fluff crap that eats most of the time you can stretch it back up to 8-10 guys and add a monetary reward, charity or otherwise, to pull in the big name players. I enjoy it when it has players that aren't on anyone's radars, but you need star power exceeding that of Chase freaking Buddinger to pull in the fans.

Also, get rid of the fan vote. Fucking stupid. You don't know who is winning. You need a solid panel of judges giving out scores and maybe fans acting as a fourth judge. Having it all done via twitter or texting is awful.

The fan voting is just stupid, last year Contest was just a formality, Blake could have thrown layups and still win. I agree with everything you said, was actually talking about the same thing with a friend of mine today. If you look at the past, almost every NBA legend that can jump was in the dunk contest. Dr. J, Michael, Isiah, Dominique, Kemp, Kobe, Clyde and so on. How come they couldn't make LeBron participate?

I would kill to see Durrant or Westbrook, James and others go at it. Having some random's is just not it, Jeremy Evans isn't even playing in Utah. For me living in a +6 hour zone its not worth it to get up at 2.30 in the morning to watch some guy jump over a bike or over P. Diddy.

The fan voting is just stupid, last year Contest was just a formality, Blake could have thrown layups and still win. I agree with everything you said, was actually talking about the same thing with a friend of mine today. If you look at the past, almost every NBA legend that can jump was in the dunk contest. Dr. J, Michael, Isiah, Dominique, Kemp, Kobe, Clyde and so on. How come they couldn't make LeBron participate?

I would kill to see Durrant or Westbrook, James and others go at it. Having some random's is just not it, Jeremy Evans isn't even playing in Utah. For me living in a +6 hour zone its not worth it to get up at 2.30 in the morning to watch some guy jump over a bike or over P. Diddy.

They should just get rid of the dunk contest if they have to force people to compete at it. I mean really the superstars want the 3 days off to rest and not worry about getting banged up even Blake Griffin said that the dunk contest took to much out of him and that he should have rested instead last year.

They should just get rid of the dunk contest if they have to force people to compete at it. I mean really the superstars want the 3 days off to rest and not worry about getting banged up even Blake Griffin said that the dunk contest took to much out of him and that he should have rested instead last year.

I normally would agree but the old athletes didn't have that problem, Wilt played every minute of every game in his prime he avg 48.5 min in a season when a game lasted for 48 mins. Nba used to be about basketball the whole season, now its about going through the motions for the regular part, and then starting to play during the playoffs.

I normally would agree but the old athletes didn't have that problem, Wilt played every minute of every game in his prime he avg 48.5 min in a season when a game lasted for 48 mins. Nba used to be about basketball the whole season, now its about going through the motions for the regular part, and then starting to play during the playoffs.

Too be fair, the NBA is a completely, completely different game then the game Wilt played. The game was played at a different pace by players that weren't nearly as physically talented as those today. The guys nowadays put in more effort in a single game than players in the 50s and 60s would put in in weeks of play. You don't have guys like Wilt who just dominate physically because there was simply no one else like them in the entire league. Your second tier NBA players now are more talented than anyone Wilt would have ever played on a daily basis.

Of course the regular season is about going through the motions, getting your team in the best position, and then really going for it in the playoffs. That is what you have to do over the course of an 82 game season. You don't win championships by winning the regular season. I don't buy the "dunk contest is too tiring" nonsense at all though. How much work is to go out and throw down 4-5 dunks in a single night? Sure you have to put in a little extra practice but it can't be tiring to the point where it has a negative impact on your season. The reason they don't get guys to play is there is a risk and the benefits don't outweigh it. If LeBron goes out there and breaks his hand or his leg he is fucked. If it causes him long term issues he is looking at losing money out of his next contract. Kobe broke his nose in the All Star game last week. If he had had concussion symptoms or it caused him to miss games in a season you can bet your ass he won't show up there for his inevitable invitation each upcoming year because he would rather win (and score points cough) in games that matter rather than meaningless scrimmages.

When you have guys making $16 million in the case of LeBron or $30 million in the case of Kobe, they aren't going to want to put themselves at risk for meaningless scrimmages. The dunk contest is something you do when you are building your brand in the NBA nowadays. Dwight Howard did the dunk contest when he was building his brand to being a star. Blake Griffin did it last year when he was building himself. Now that he is doing KIA commercials and is a big star it is pointless to go for the extra exposure. You'd think they could have at the very least got budding stars though like Blake and Dwight were. Chase Buddinger, Jeremy Evans, Paul George, and Derrick Williams don't exactly scream future stars in the making. You'd think the NBA could have gotten a better crop of big names like Kyrie Irving or somebody that actually sees significant floor time for a team.

I still don't see how people think the Bulls can get past the Heat in a seven game series. If Rip Hamilton is your answer to the problems Chicago had solving Miami's defense last year, I just don't think it's a good one. He's an often injured 34 year old who hasn't played in a meaningful basketball game in 4 years. On his career, he's a decent 35% 3 point shooter, but he'll only get you 17 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds a game. That's your best guy off the bench. That's your ace in the hole to beat Miami's defense.

Miami has Norris Cole off the bench having a great rookie year, Udonis Haslem who is yet another very good defender, and, oh by the way, Shane Battier who might still be the best perimeter defender in the league and can hit corner threes when you need him to. So Miami can sub in two guys that are better defenders than most of the guys in the league.

Anything is possible, but until someone shows me why I shouldn't think Miami is the favorite, I'll continue to think so.

I still don't see how people think the Bulls can get past the Heat in a seven game series. If Rip Hamilton is your answer to the problems Chicago had solving Miami's defense last year, I just don't think it's a good one. He's an often injured 34 year old who hasn't played in a meaningful basketball game in 4 years. On his career, he's a decent 35% 3 point shooter, but he'll only get you 17 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds a game. That's your best guy off the bench. That's your ace in the hole to beat Miami's defense.

Miami has Norris Cole off the bench having a great rookie year, Udonis Haslem who is yet another very good defender, and, oh by the way, Shane Battier who might still be the best perimeter defender in the league and can hit corner threes when you need him to. So Miami can sub in two guys that are better defenders than most of the guys in the league.

Anything is possible, but until someone shows me why I shouldn't think Miami is the favorite, I'll continue to think so.

I guess I will play devil's advocate and point out a few things on how the bulls could beat the heat.

1. Bulls have probably the best point guard in the game atm and the point is just as important as a QB for the NFL.
2. Bulls defense is really good.
3. Bulls know who they are and what I mean is they know that Rose is the best player on the team that will take the last shot of the game.
4. Which brings me to Lebron for all his greatness he struggles in the big game and I know they beat the bulls last year but the bulls just play more collectively then the heat this year and if any team from the east is going to beat the heat it is the bulls.

Of course the regular season is about going through the motions, getting your team in the best position, and then really going for it in the playoffs. That is what you have to do over the course of an 82 game season. You don't win championships by winning the regular season. I don't buy the "dunk contest is too tiring" nonsense at all though. How much work is to go out and throw down 4-5 dunks in a single night? Sure you have to put in a little extra practice but it can't be tiring to the point where it has a negative impact on your season. The reason they don't get guys to play is there is a risk and the benefits don't outweigh it. If LeBron goes out there and breaks his hand or his leg he is fucked. If it causes him long term issues he is looking at losing money out of his next contract. Kobe broke his nose in the All Star game last week. If he had had concussion symptoms or it caused him to miss games in a season you can bet your ass he won't show up there for his inevitable invitation each upcoming year because he would rather win (and score points cough) in games that matter rather than meaningless scrimmages.

That's the thing, why play 82 almost meaningless games in regular season, why not cut that number to 60 or something (cba doing the math atm). Or just plain old play each team twice (home and away) and start with the playoffs sooner? I'm sure that way we will see more quality games.

That's the thing, why play 82 almost meaningless games in regular season, why not cut that number to 60 or something (cba doing the math atm). Or just plain old play each team twice (home and away) and start with the playoffs sooner? I'm sure that way we will see more quality games.

Because it's money. Why do you think they play 66 games and not 40 this season? Stern will tell you it's for credibility of season or some other PR answer. But it's only because of money. Don't get me wrong, players signed for it because of money too. Besides, NBA has quite nice type of schedule normally. Every stadium has every team to play there at least once. You can always argue that there should be less games, but face it - it's less money for teams, less money for TV, less money for players.

BTW, why do you think first round got converted from 5 game series to 7 game series? It's more objective? Forget it. Playoff games are most watched games of season. Longer series means more income.

I still don't see how people think the Bulls can get past the Heat in a seven game series. ...
Anything is possible, but until someone shows me why I shouldn't think Miami is the favorite, I'll continue to think so.

OK, I'll say it again, you don't analyze playoff series just by statistics. It's all about matchups. From by point of view, biggest problem for Bulls last year was not knowing what to do when Rose got doubled. His teammates didn't get open, Rose himself turned it over, Rose got into corners where it's very hard to get out of double teams... If he and coaching stuff did learn from it, I think Bulls have very good shot at Heat this year. And Bulls bench is very good no matter what you think of them. Asik, Gibson, Watson and Korver are still there. Yes, Heat bench is better this year, but don't overlook Bulls bench.

Yes, of course it can turn either way. Same can be said about LeBron and Heat offense - they are attacking basket more, both him and Wade have shot less than 20 three pointers this season. And that's the one thing everyone was saying last year - LeBron is unstoppable in pain, why the hell is he shooting contested 3's?

So I'm OK with you thinking that Heat is better. As long as you are OK with me thinking Bulls are better. No matter what, I think it would be (will be) very close and entertaining series again. Just hope all of key players are healthy when playoffs come.

That's the thing, why play 82 almost meaningless games in regular season, why not cut that number to 60 or something (cba doing the math atm). Or just plain old play each team twice (home and away) and start with the playoffs sooner? I'm sure that way we will see more quality games.

One reason) $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Reducing the games reduces the money owners make from tickets, merchandise, and most importantly television contracts. Reducing the games played reduces salaries for players. No one cares about the quality of games. They don't. It maybe matters slightly for the national games which is why only the good teams or big markets ever play in those, but on a day to day basis the quality of play doesn't matter to the vast majority of fans. Quality of play this season has been horrendous thanks to the lockout, but people aren't shying away from attending or watching games.

If the NBA, NFL, NHL, or MLB cared about quality of games there wouldn't be so many damn teams. The NBA and NHL would scale back to 26-28, same for the NFL. The MLB would scale back to about 10 teams. They don't because quality is an illusion. Quality is something that the masses convince themselves that they want but in reality quality doesn't mean shit to anyone, value does. If quality mattered Adam Sandler wouldn't have a career. He couldn't put out 1-2 shit movies like Jack and Jill every year and makes hundreds of millions in ticket and dvd sales because the quality of his product is fucking abysmal. People don't care about quality. People care about being entertained and getting semi decent value for their money. You will always feel like you are getting better value when there are 82 games to watch.

---------- Post added 2012-02-29 at 10:28 AM ----------

Originally Posted by skarsguard

I guess I will play devil's advocate and point out a few things on how the bulls could beat the heat.

1. Bulls have probably the best point guard in the game atm and the point is just as important as a QB for the NFL.
2. Bulls defense is really good.
3. Bulls know who they are and what I mean is they know that Rose is the best player on the team that will take the last shot of the game.
4. Which brings me to Lebron for all his greatness he struggles in the big game and I know they beat the bulls last year but the bulls just play more collectively then the heat this year and if any team from the east is going to beat the heat it is the bulls.

1) Yes they do. The Heat have a top three SG and the by far best player and best SF in the game though not to mention a top 5 PF. The Bulls have the best, or top 2 behind Paul, PG and no one else that even registers.
2) The Heats defense is as good if not better.
3) The Heat do have a half court identity crisis for sure.
4) If you think the Bulls play more like a team this year you are nuts. Every single game is the Rose show. He has no other trusted shooters on the team. None. The Heat are by far a better team than they were last year when they decimated the Bulls. LeBron is top 15 in the league in assists while being second in scoring. He is the best rebounding guy at his position in the league. Bosh is playing fantastically. Wade, when healthy, has been great. They actually have their 1 and 5 spots worked out this season. The Heat have 4-5 scoring options down the stretch. The Bulls have 1.

If any team in the East can beat the Heat frankly it is the Knicks if Amare gets his shit together. They are the only team with good match ups against the Heat. JR and Landry are sufficient options at the 2 spot. Lin will be better against them with more experience. He got devoured by their defense the first time he saw them. Chandler can completely lock down the lane on LeBron and the Heat's inside players. Melo can score with anyone. STAT is a better offensive player than Bosh when healthy or whatever the hell is currently wrong with him. Chicago needs to add another scoring option before they will ever be able to beat the Heat in a 7 game series. Current rosters the Heat would beat the Bulls in 4 or 5 every time out as they are simply nowhere near as deep or talented as the Heat outside of Rose.

Its a damn shame Noah has been sucking this year and Dwight Howard has the same shoe company contract as Rose (which yes is a huge factor in him not wanting to go to Chicago earlier this year) as that would put the Bulls on equal or near equal footing with the Heat.

I guess I will play devil's advocate and point out a few things on how the bulls could beat the heat.

1. Bulls have probably the best point guard in the game atm and the point is just as important as a QB for the NFL.
2. Bulls defense is really good.
3. Bulls know who they are and what I mean is they know that Rose is the best player on the team that will take the last shot of the game.
4. Which brings me to Lebron for all his greatness he struggles in the big game and I know they beat the bulls last year but the bulls just play more collectively then the heat this year and if any team from the east is going to beat the heat it is the bulls.

1. PG is important, but it is hardly the QB of the NBA. Phil Jackson won 11 rings using the Triangle offense on offenses which, frankly, had average PGs. Dallas won last year with a solid but old PG. Spurs dynasty of the late 90s and early 00s were on the back of their twin towers of power, not great PG play. Not too many teams win when their best player is the PG. Last time that happened, it was the Bad Boy Pistons of the 90s.

2. So is the Heat defense. Accounting for pace, they are virtually tied.

3. Heat half-court offense can occasionally stall, but here's a little fact not many people know: Heat have one of the most efficient half-court offenses in the league.

4. LeBron has the second highest PER in playoff history behind Michael Jordan. Besides Game 5 against the Celtics, and Games 3 - 6 in the Finals last year, he's been fine in the clutch. LeBron shoots a higher percentage on game winning shots than virtually every big name active player in the game today. It is both equal parts fact and myth that he struggles in crunch time. When he wants to, he can dominate like in the Bulls series. When he becomes docile, he disappears.